A Question of Persuasion
by DreamsToHeart
Summary: After a miserable, sleepless night from ghost hunting and a stressful day filled with forgotten essays and his mom's mutated foods, all that Danny Fenton wants is a nice, long nap. But when a certain someone shows up with Freakshow's repaired staff, the man holds the power to manipulate the teenage halfa in whatever manner he desires... Humour fic. T for language. One-shot.


**A/N:** Hey everyone! I was browsing through some story challenges, and I found one concerning what would happen if Vlad found and repaired Freakshow's staff. Inspired, I decided to write a one-shot on what I though would transpire between Danny and Vlad; though, it's probably not something you'd expect.

**Note** that Danny's just started his Junior year, but everything starting from Kindred Spirits and onwards never happened (for plot convenience). So Dani never happened, Vlad's still after Danny as his apprentice and nobody knows that Fenton and Phantom are one and the same (save for his friends and Jazz).

**Disclaimer:**I obviously don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

Even after the bell signaling the end of the day rang, Tucker was still laughing as Sam and I walked down the hallway with him.

"It's not funny, Tucker," I growled, shoving my hands even deeper into my pockets.

"If you slump any more, Danny, your spine will snap!" Sam snickered quietly, earning herself a dirty look from yours truly.

"I said, it's not funny guys!" I repeated grouchily as we plowed through the crowded hallways. "I got no sleep thanks to having spent the whole night shoving a plethora of ghosts back into the ghost zone-"

"In other words, the Box Ghost twenty different times," Tucker interjected, chuckling.

As we passed Dash in the hallway, I stuck out my foot and watched as the hulking jock face-planted onto the dirty school hallway. As the infuriated Dash jumped up to pummel me, I pointed at Tucker in accusation.

"-as I was saying, I spent the whole night shoving a _plethora_ of ghosts back into the ghost zone," I continued ranting to Sam, while Tucker was thrown head first into a nearby garbage can. "Then, my morning was spent restocking my first aid kit after Jazz accidentally let my mom's man-eating waffles out of the freezer. Thanks to one of them taking a bite out of my finger, I showed up late to class without the essay that was due today, and I'm fairly certain that I just failed Lancer's pop quiz on To Kill a Mockingbird."

"Don't forget the fact that your parents wanted you to help them test out the Fenton Ghost-Dismemberer after school, today!" Tucker threw in as he caught up with us just as we were exiting the school, a banana peel still stuck to shirt.

"Thanks Tucker, that makes me feel a lot better," I said sarcastically, as the cool, fall air greeted us.

"Tucker, Danny's day has been rough enough without you taking a jab at it," Sam admonished. With a sigh, she grabbed the peel off of Tucker's garbage-stained shirt and threw it aside. She grabbed for my hand (ignoring my slight blush), and stopped me from walking away. Reluctantly, I turned to face her. "Danny, don't worry so much. Things will be better tomorrow; everyone has their bad days. Let's just go home and watch a movie."

"Dude, or we could go play some Doom!" Tucker added excitedly, trying to find a legit solution to my dire problems.

One shriveling look in his direction told him exactly what I thought about playing Doom at that moment.

I pulled my hand away from Sam's. "Look, guys, movies and video games are hardly going to solve my problems!" I scoffed, tearing at my red jacket, angrily. "Just leave me alone for a bit, alright?"

Sam opened her mouth as if to say something, but nodded in understanding as she motioned for Tucker to follow her. Turning my back on my friends, I listened as the crunching sound of leaves grew fainter and fainter, telling me that they had honored my wishes and left me in peace.

Grimacing, I walked in the general direction of my house, kicking up a multitude of colorful leaves as I trudged along. Being alone gave me time to mull over my muddled thoughts. Ghost hunting had been manageable all summer whilst I had no essays, midterms and slipping grades to tear myself apart over, but the beautiful summer had come to an end and the time had come to return to hell.

I meant school.

I used to think that after having ghost powers for two years, things would've gotten easier. Well, my brain had lied to me. The start of my junior had just meant more school work and less time for important things, such as sleeping and eating. Sure, my powers had improved, but so had those of the ghosts that I fought every, single night.

_Man, being a teenage ghost-hybrid really sucked sometimes._

Brushing a few strands of black hair out of my face, I turned the latter up to the sky, searching for the sun to add some much-needed warmth to my day. But thanks to my absolutely atrocious luck, I felt the lack-of-warmth of a few rain drops instead. Scowling, I wrenched the hood of my jacket over my head and started jogging down the street, jumping a good ten feet in the air as a car - that had almost turned me flatter than my mom's mutant waffles - honked its horn at me. As the driver swore graciously in my general direction, I ran over to the sidewalk and kept moving from there. How rude, I thought. The car hadn't even had the grace to hit me and spare me from this miserable day.

At that moment, the said miserable day politely decided to open the world's flood gates over my head.

Rain inundated me from all directions, temporarily blinding me and immediately soaking through my clothes. I snapped. Not literally, of course, but again, that would've been a blessing at that point.

"Can this day get any worse?" I called out bitterly, to no one in particular.

My ghost sense answered that one.

"Daniel, what a pleasant coincidence meeting you here!"

I gasped, knowing that voice all too well. "Coincidence my ass, Plasmius," I spat venomously. I spun around in the rain, finding none other than the cheese-head, his usual smug look on his face as he floated with his arms behind his back. Growling, I wasted no time in bringing out my ghost half.

"Language, Daniel," he tutted, as a sly smile slithered across his stupid face. "I'd rather not want my future apprentice to befoul the air with such atrocious language."

I felt my eyes glow an acid green as my arch-nemesis tried to sell me his you-shall-be-mine crap. "Go away, Plasmius; even beating the living daylights out of you wouldn't bring me any pleasure today. Just leave me alone." I tried to push past him, but the fruit-loop only teleported in front of me.

As his grin grew wider, and I wondered whether the rain would prevent me from properly aiming a punch to wipe it off of his face.

"Oh come now, Daniel, I just want to have a nice chat with you," Vlad replied.

I then decided that the rain wouldn't stop my punch. Unfortunately for me, Vlad did. Catching my fisted hand and throwing it aside, he calmly floated there, as if the bastard owned the city.

_Oh right, he did._

"If you think that I'm going to believe that bull crap, then you're an idiot," I growled, throwing my hands in the air. "Man, why did you have to pick today to be 'annoy-the-  
hell-out-of-the-ghost-boy' day? Just tell me what you want this time, so I can refuse you and go home."

Vlad chuckled at my apparently amusing antics. "You're perception has deepened, Daniel."

"Uhuh. Right."

Plasmius sighed, rubbing his left temple with his white, gloved hand. "Alright boy, seeing as you're as rash as ever, I'll let you in on my plans. See, dear boy, I need some information-"

_Oh great._

"- and you're going to supply it, whether you want to or not."

You know what? I was so not in the mood to play his little games. "Cut the theatrics, Plasmius; whatever information you want, you won't get it; just go home to your cat before I lose my patience."

"You can't lose something that you never had, dear boy," the moron corrected.

I figured that Vlad got my hint to continue when my hands started to glow a dark shade of green. "Fine Daniel; I need information, which I will get using this," he stated pompously, taking a dark, wooden staff out from behind his back.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh please, Plasmius, how many hits in the head did it take for you to believe that you could possibly get me to give you anything by pointing a stick at me? You really are one, seriously crazed-up frui-"

Suddenly, a glowing red orb on top of this said "stick" caught my eye; the wall of rain had obscured it before it had started glowing.

Oh shit. _Shit, shit shit shit!_

Taking a few steps back, I demanded warily, "Where did you get that?"

Tossing it from hand to hand, Vlad smirked, glad to have finally attracted my attention. "Why, I found this in pieces while taking a stroll through the forest one afternoon. Recognizing it, I thought: why not fix it?" Glancing at me knowingly, he continued, "I'm sure, Daniel, that you understand the significance of such an important artifact, hmm? It has a rather, how do I put it, hypnotizing aura to it, no?"

Shit. I honestly thought that I had broken that thing a long time ago. "Freakshow won't be happy to know that you've gone and stolen his stuff, Plasmius," I said, trying miserably to intimidate him out of his plan.

"I would hardly grace my actions with the word stealing, Daniel; I found it rather abandoned on the ground," Vlad dismissed my attempt with an impatient wave of his hand. "Besides, one would agree that I have better uses for the artifact." Out of the blue, the fruit loop disappeared from sight.

I spun around, peering through the persistent rain in search for any signs of movement that would have indicated the bastard trying to sneak up on me. Being controlled by that thing had given me the worst head ache imaginable; it was not a feeling that I was eager to experience again. Plus, who knows what kind of fruit-loopy things Vlad would make me do without my resistance. "Look Vlad, there's no need to use the staff; just ask me your questions and I'll answer them. Then we can both just go our separate ways," I called out anxiously, hoping he would fall for my bluff. Hearing a chuckle behind me, I attacked with a round-house kick, but my foot met thin air. And rain.

"Oh, but Daniel, where would the fun be in that?" His disembodied voice asked.

_Psychopath._

A sudden, vicious punch to my face left me sprawled on the ground, clutching my aching head. Dizzily, I looked up to see Vlad, once again tangible, holding out the potent staff, like a sword. I tried to avert my eyes, but Plasmius knelt down and grabbed my chin, forcing me to look up at him. Hissing, I pulled against Vlad's hand with two of my own, but he swiped them aside as he would a fly and restrained them with his foot (ouch).

"Unfortunately for you, my dear boy, you won't have any recollection of what you are about to tell me," Vlad sighed mockingly. "But think about itDaniel; that will only make things more interesting for you when you wake up, hmm?"

The next thing that I saw was a vivid red light, lulling me down into its familiar hypnotic swirl, further, and further, and further...

* * *

Stretching out and yawning lazily, I opened my eyes the next morning to the warm sun splashing across my face. Pulling my covers back, I sat up slightly in bed, one arm propped against my soft pillow. Did I really just sleep through the whole night, no interruptions? I thought in amazement.

Getting up, I crossed my floor to my dresser rather contentedly (which was rare, considering that I wasn't a morning person) and pulled on a clean white t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Wondering how much time I had to get ready for school, I sought for my red alarm clock-

_Red. Oh man_.

I stumbled as the memories from last night knocked the breath out of me. Plasmius. Freakshow's staff. Information.

_No. No no no no. What had I said?_

As fast as lightning, I spun on my heel and darted out my door and down the stairs, managing to trip down half of the flight when one of my feet accidentally turned intangible.

Of course, my mom came running out of the kitchen the moment that she heard my clumsiness banging down the stairs. _Well, at least Vlad hadn't taken her while I had been sleeping_!

"Oh sweetie, are you alright?" She asked worriedly, checking me over as I struggled to pull myself off of the ground.

"I'm fine, jeez mom," I grumbled, dislodging myself from her anxious hands and wiping the dust and grime off of my clothes.

"Danny, you need to stop scaring me like that!" My mom cried, moving her hands to her hips. "Last night, your father and I nearly had a heart attack when Vlad carried you through the door, unconscious; he said that he had found you fast asleep on a park bench on his way home from work. Who knows what would have happened had he not found you before the night fell!"

_Oh, so that's what his excuse had been._ _Fruit loop._

My mother continued to ramble on about how I needed to go to bed earlier and about being more responsible when a scary thought popped into my mind.

"Mom, where's Dad?" I demanded in a panicked voice, grabbing hold of her arms in an urgent grip.

She gave me a look that told me that she was deeply worried about my sanity.

"Why Danny, he's in the lab, as usual," she said in a slow voice.

_Thank the gods._ "And Jazz? She's fine, too, right?"

Mom gently peeled my taut hands off of her arms and walked me over to the couch, forcing me to sit down. "Everyone's alright, Danny. What's wrong, sweetheart; is there something that you're not telling me?" she asked, forehead creasing in worry as she scrutinized my reaction.

_Wait. Everyone was alright? So what in the world had Vlad wanted last night?_ As the couch squeaked from my fidgeting, I gave her the best excuse that my brain could have possible mustered at that early hour: "It's nothing, mom. I just had... a really bad dream. About a fruitloop."

Clearly that was not what she had been expecting to hear; my mom gazed at me, uncertainly. "Alright Danny, if you say so. But if there's anything that you want to talk ab-".

A piercing ring interrupted the conversation. Holding back a sigh of relief, I got up quickly. _Saved by the telephone!_

My mom got up as well. "I'd better get that honey; one moment," she said, walking in the direction of her cell phone.

I was free to finish packing for school, but this nagging feeling that I was missing something leeched onto my mind, sucking away my concentration. _What kind of information had Vlad wanted from me last night? Or did I just imagine the whole thing?_

I got my answer just as I was walking out the door when my mom came out to kiss me good bye. After giving her a disgusted _'ew mom'_ in response, I was about to leave when I noticed a strange expression on her face. Anxiety gripped at me, so I asked her whether everything was alright.

"Everything's fine, Danny," she replied, bewildered. "But I was just wondering: how in the world did Vlad Masters get my cellphone number?"

* * *

A/N: Oh Vlad, you could have asked Danny any question or force him to do your every bidding, and you ask for his mom's cell phone number?

**V:** Daniel would not have parted with it otherwise.

**D:** For obvious reasons, you fruit-loop.

Anyways, thanks for reading! I hope that nobody was too OOC or anything; this is my first DP fic, so I tried my best! I'm brainstorming for a more serious project that I'd like to attempt; I've never actually written a full-on story (or at least, completed one), but hopefully I'll stay motivated and have the first chapter out soon!

Constructive criticism very welcome!


End file.
